Verdict

ARTICLES ABOUT VERDICT BY DATE - PAGE 5

By DAVID OWENS, dowens@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, November 10, 2011

Jurors considering the state's case against Bryant Smith did not reach a verdict Thursday, their first full day of deliberations, and will return on Monday. The state's courts are closed on Friday, which is Veterans Day. Smith is charged with murder in the killing of his brother, Patrick Smith, on April 8, 2009, at their mother's apartment at 71-73 Cowles St. in Hartford. The state contends that Bryant Smith shot and killed his brother with a .45-caliber pistol because he was angry with him. The defense contends that Bryant Smith was suffering a PCP-induced delusion when he killed his brother and is therefore not responsible.

By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY, cdempsey@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, November 3, 2011

— A jury found James Carter Jr. guilty of murder Tuesday in the 2009 stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend, Tiana Notice. Carter, 31, of Bloomfield, also was found guilty of criminal violation of a restraining order. The murder charge alone could send him to prison for up to 60 years when he is sentenced Jan. 13. The verdict was announced about 4 p.m. in Superior Court in New Britain after two days of deliberation. Carter, who became emotional twice during the trial, declined to be in the courtroom.

By MARA LEE maralee@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, October 28, 2011

AT&T has won a lawsuit brought by 200 front-line managers in Connecticut, who had said they deserved to overtime pay even though they supervise technicians. A jury in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport agreed with the company's lawyers that the field supervisors had discretion that fit the "manager" title, and therefore were exempt from wage and hour laws that require people be paid time and a half when they work more than 40 hours a week. The verdict was delivered Friday. The issue of who is entitled to overtime has heated up as the social contract between employers and employees has become less trusting, and as more people work in service industries, where exemptions are more complicated.

By ALAINE GRIFFIN, agriffin@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, October 13, 2011

The second day of deliberations in the trial of Joshua Komisarjevsky began shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday, a day after jurors worked for four hours without reaching a verdict. Last year, when the door to the jury deliberating room finally closed on Paula Calzetta and the 11 other jurors chosen to weigh the evidence against defendant Steven Hayes in the Cheshire triple-murder case, she felt a huge sense of relief. "For me, that was a big moment. I finally didn't have to hold it all in," Calzetta said late Wednesday.

The jury has found Joshua Komisarjevsky guilty of all 17 charges he faced in the Cheshire home invasion case. Six of the counts are capital felony charges that carry the possibility of a death sentence. The case will now move to a penalty phase, because Komisarjevsky has been convicted on the capital counts. Here is the breakdown of the charges, with verdicts: 1. Murder: Aided Steven Hayes in the murder of Jennifer Hawke-Petit: GUILTY 2. Murder of Hayley Petit: GUILTY 3. Murder of Michaela Petit: GUILTY 4. Capital felony: Intentionally caused the deaths of two or more people: GUILTY 5. Capital felony: Intentionally caused the death of a person under the age of 16: GUILTY 6. First-degree kidnapping (William Petit)

A Superior Court judge presiding over sexual-abuse cases involving Dr. George Reardon has turned back a series of routine defense motions challenging a $2.75 million jury verdict reached last month against St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. Lawyers for the hospital filed two related motions asking Judge Dan Shaban to reject the jury's July 8 verdict as contrary to the law and the evidence. But Shaban, in a written decision released Friday, ruled that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury's decision.

On Friday, Superior Court Judge Julia D. Dewey sentenced Pedro Miranda to life plus 100 years for the murder of Carmen Lopez, 17, in Hartford in January 1988. The sentence was welcomed by the victim's family and that of Miguel Roman, her boyfriend, who was wrongfully convicted of the murder in 1990 and sentenced to 60 years in prison. But troubling questions remain after the sentencing. Why was Roman convicted when there were obvious clues that pointed to Miranda? And why has the state not offered Roman compensation for his wrongful conviction and the more than 20 years he spent in prison?

By EDMUND H. MAHONY, emahony@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, July 8, 2011

WATERBURY — In the first verdict in a long line of suits, a jury on Friday implicated St. Francis Hospital in decades of child sexual abuse when it awarded $2.75 million to a middle-aged man who said his abuse by endocrinologist Dr. George Reardon left him emotionally scarred for life. The verdict — returned by a six-person civil jury after only four and a half hours of deliberation — buoyed 60 or so other Reardon victims who have been fighting for years for the opportunity to bring similar negligence suits to trial.

By HILLARY FEDERICO, hfederico@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, July 5, 2011

The verdict in the Casey Anthony trial drew outrage and disbelief from most of the people interviewed in Blue Back Square on Tuesday afternoon. "Are you kidding me?" Karen Chefly asked when told that Anthony, 25, was found not guilty Tuesday of first-degree murder and other serious charges in connection with the 2008 death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. "It's disgusting. It really is disgusting," Chefly said. "I'm very sad. " Anthony was convicted on four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.

Justice can never come too late. But when it comes as late as it did for the victims of Pedro Miranda, one of whom wrongly served 20 years in prison, the consequences are devastating. Four families waited decades for this day, which finally came Tuesday, when a jury found Pedro Miranda guilty of the 1988 murder of 17-year-old Carmen Lopez. They stifled sobs as a jury returned guilty verdicts in all but one of the five counts against Miranda. Outside the third-floor Hartford courtroom, they cried and hugged.